Friday, December 19, 2014

At Least There Wasn't Any Torture

My original idea for this week's blog was to discuss the Afghan Taliban's condemnation of the attack against a school by the Pakistani Taliban. However, that topic is waaaaaaaaaay out of my knowledge league when it comes to having an intelligent discussion about why the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban dislike each other (short answer: it's tribal).

Then I decided to write about the ISIS attack on Al Assad Air Base in Iraq, but became irked when all the reporting on it stated it was the first time US ground troops and ISIS have fought. First time US troops have fought ISIS since the group changed its name perhaps. I recall several years in Iraq where I tried hunting down AQI/ISI assholes. This is either a case of lazy or shitty reporting. Take your pick.

Today, however, was my lucky day. It was reported yesterday that the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO for short, I really love acronyms that include acronyms in the actual name), which was established to help fight the IED problem in Iraq and Afghanistan, apparently did some intelligence collection no no's. JIEDDO had established a program called the Counter-IED Operations Intelligence Integration Center (COIC) which it then staffed with contractors. These contractors acted as intelligence analysts and were tasked with the mission of analyzing intelligence dealing with IEDs and the various insurgent IED networks.

I'm going to break here for a moment just to inform you of my bias on this subject. COIC was one of the main rivals to the program I was employed with for a time, the Counter Insurgency Targeting Program (CITP). Mildly interesting fact, the "I" in CITP was changed from "IED" to "insurgency" in an attempt to stay relevant as combat forces (and money) were reduced in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So what did COIC do wrong? It's analysts, at this instruction of COIC leadership (likely both military and civilian), collected information and intelligence on US persons and companies. Collecting information on US persons/companies is absolutely illegal for intelligence analysts working for the US military. The organization also was collecting information on SGT Bowe Bergdahl, which is two violations...the first being collecting on Bergdahl who is a US citizen, and the second being gathering information on a subject that had nothing to do with IEDs...a mission outside of COIC's scope.

 As an analyst, both military and civilian, I've had it beaten into my head that collecting on US persons/companies is against federal regulations and therefore illegal. I also know that fighting a complex insurgency is extremely challenging (understatement of the week). People are going to slip up on occasion, but from what I read in the article this was a systemic issue. I'm shocked that no one in the leadership of COIC or JIEDDO stepped in to stop these violations.

No wait, I'm not shocked.

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